“It is, but still odd to go there. The door on the other side is my office.”
He opened it and she peeked in. He was neat, she’d give him that much. Minimalistic too. “It’s a nice space. Lots of light.”
“I painted everything light gray. It’s easy. There were a lot of dark colors in here and let me tell you what a pain that was. Not as bad as my brother Devin’s house though. When he bought his, every room had a different dark bold color on it. It was horrible. But paint is easy to fix.”
“Maybe this room is supposed to be like a drinking room or something?” she said, laughing. “I could see some women sitting in here with wine as they looked out the front windows and watched the neighborhood.”
“I never thought of that,” he said. “I think the fact you can see into the house so much with this big window is what bothers me. I’m glad there is a wall behind it blocking the rest.”
She moved with him around that wall and could see the other side of the kitchen from the opposite hallway. “This is beautiful,” she said.
There was a large island in the center that looked into a family room with a dining room off to the side.
“It’s a lot of space for one person. I know that, but I hoped to grow into it at some point.”
“It had to take a lot of time to redo all this,” she said. “You said the layout was bad. What did you do?”
“There were these crazy walls that made no sense. They didn’t go to the ceiling so they were blocking views but not noises. It was fun taking a sledgehammer to them to get them down. I kept the kitchen cabinets but sanded them down and painted them gray. What a bitch that was, but cheaper than buying new and they are solid wood, so worth it. My father built the island. One of those weird walls was there. The counters are new. The floors were all hardwood, but they’d put carpet over them. It saved me from putting new in, but sanding these down to refinish wasn’t fun. I only had to patch the floors where the walls had been.”
“How long did it take you to do everything?” she asked. “I can paint and did a lot of that in my place. I wish I could do more, but I can’t. It’s not that modern, but it’s not horrible either.”
The kitchens in her house had laminate counters that were clean but not fancy. The cabinets were solid wood but showed their age. At least it looked better once they were painted too. The floors were wood and somewhat scarred, but throw rugs helped with that. The one bathroom in each apartment was as modern as the kitchens. So not much, but it was clean and functional.
Paint went a long way to making things look new when they weren’t.
“It was probably a year before it was done. When it came to demo, I had a lot of help. Brody, Mason, my father, my Uncle Connor and Uncle Gavin were over here kicking and knocking any wall down they could. Aiden would have, but he had to work and Cade and Travis were out of town when we started it. They were both pissed, let me tell you.”
“What is it about men and demo days?”
“I’m not sure, but we had a blast doing it.”
“All the bedrooms are upstairs?” she asked.
“Yes. There are four. One full bath that connects two rooms. One full bath in the primary suite and then a hall bath that has a shower stall. There is a half bath off the hall down here.”
She followed him to the hall that went down to the garage. They didn’t get far when she saw the door there and popped in to see the toilet and sink. Tiny but functional.
“That is a lot of bathrooms. Did you have to redo them all?” she asked.
“Yes. More demo. The people were slobs here and trashed some things when they were going to lose the house to the bank. It helped me get it cheap. I did mine first and used another one until it was complete. I didn’t do anything fancy. Kept the same layouts but replaced cabinets, as some of the doors were busted off. The faucets were broken. I don’t get people. They fell behind for whatever reason but rather than try to sell it or get out from under, they destroyed it and probably went in more debt.”
“Everyone makes their own decisions in life. Might not be ours, but they have to own them. One thing I can say is you obviously don’t shy away from hard work. This is stunning.”
“Thank you,” he said. “On both comments. Just because I sit behind a desk all day long doesn’t mean that I don’t want to get my hands dirty. I think we all have to find what we like in life and stick with it.”
“We do,” she said. She wasn’t going to ask to see the upstairs and he didn’t offer. They weren’t anywhere near that point.
This was their first date and so far they’d talked about her family drama and how much work he had to put into his house.
“I hope you like chili,” he said. “I didn’t think to ask. I’m not much of a cook and that is easy enough to make.”
“I’m not a fussy eater. Chili sounds great.”
“I do cook, but it’s nothing fancy.”
“Same here,” she said. “I tend to make big meals and eat it for a few days with my mother. We freeze the rest for another time.”
“The same,” he said, laughing and repeating her words. “Though I don’t cook it with my mother, I will admit she keeps me supplied.”
